Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Pelikan Edelstein Mandarin Ink


This is Mandarin, a clear true orange with just the slightest tinge of yellow, but that may be only when compared to another orange such as the Diamine Pumpkin. I'm not familiar with that many orange inks, but I think this might make an interesting highlighter if you wanted to dump the yellow and try this in a Preppy eyedropper (maybe with a drop or two of White of the Whale).



As you can see from the picture, this ink is not waterproof. There is no noticeable shading to Mandarin, and the ink didn't make my Muji steel fountain pen into a wet noodle. The pen's fine nib remained dry, no nib creep, and worked continuously--no dry starts or skipping, no shaking the pen to try and force ink into the capillary/feed. It's a well behaved ink, and there was no feathering on the paper and no bleed through on the Franklin Covey notepad, so this seems like a good choice for double-sided writing.

I wouldn't call this fast drying, while I didn't do a test of the Mandarin I have tested the Topaz and Jade and it's neither slow nor fast. It's definitely a fun color, not as serious as black, as soft as blue, nor as bold as red. If you're into orange inks or just want a change, give this one a try.

On the top right, courtesy of The New York Times, is a recent pic from the Milan fashion shows that actually does a good job of explaining Mandarin and Pumpkin. The Edelstein Mandarin ink is the color of the skirt, the Diamine Pumpkin is the top; jacket and model not included.

9 comments:

  1. Great analogy to finish a piece that was not all good news. You actually made me long for an orange ink. Brilliant!

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  2. My Mandarin shaded like crazy in a Lamy 27 with Medium stubbish nib!

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  3. Thanks for that info Lady Tortoise. I think ink shading is more dependent on the nib than anything else, and using a fine or extra fine nib doesn't really allow for much color variation.

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  4. Fountain pens meet haute couture? Sure, why not? Our community needs a boost. We've got around 1/3 of 1% of writing implements' sales by volume. We could use a little help from cross-branding. (Yeah, some attempts at product differentiation are downright silly, like camo patterns on ballpoint pens.) Jack/Youngstown

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  5. Great review, Diane! I really like this stuff, and like Lady Tortoise, I've seen a bit of shading in a stubbed VP nib. I'm honestly not sure if I like the shading in it or not...it might be a lot of fun to have it remain the vivid orange that I get when it's not shading!

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  6. Huh--"There is no noticeable shading to Mandarin."

    You've got to be kidding me, these new Pelikan inks exhibit great shading!

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  7. Anonymous, I don't see any shading on this ink but I'm using a fine nib and so the line is quite thin. Shading seems to be a function of the ink, the nib size, and wristiness. :)

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  8. "[A] a clear true orange with just the slightest tinge of yellow." Boy, I wish I had your eye. I still have a hard time picking up subtleties . . . maybe that's why I've ordered around 130 ink samples the last few months -- subliminally, I was thinking, "practice, practice, practice!"

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